Writer's Block: Running Things

[uberreiniger]

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Oh boy, a day in der Uberreinigerreich where all my adolescent power fantasies come true. Let's see...

-I'd fix the prison system and I'd fix it hard. You go to prison, you don't get to do drugs. You don't get to be in a gang. You don't get to just eat the taxpayers' food. You go to prison, you're going to be productive and you're going to face what you have done, not learn how to do it better when you get out.

-I'd secure the border by giving border police the resources and manpower that they need. Citizenship for illegals who want it, deportation for those who don't. It's just as simple as that. For unscrupulous employers who exploit illegal labor while keeping citizens unemployed, criminal prosecution. For the drug lords and human traffickers who use illegal immigrants and profit from their misery, well, I can't promise that black ops teams won't find and eliminate them in their countries of origin. But I will deny it in the event it does happen.

-Schools might be even harder to fix than borders and prisons, but I'd start where I feel it matters most: the teachers. Get them decent pay, decent benefits, budgets to meet their supply needs, and whatever incentives I need to provide to get motivated, intelligent, caring people into one of the most important fields in any society.

-I'm not enough of a strategist to know how to win in Iraq and Afghannistan, but I can at least work on getting the Veteran's medical system fixed, particularly in regards to psychiatric care. No more wars that are still claiming lives five, ten, twenty years later.

Comments

[l-greytree.livejournal.com]

I like der Uberreinigerreich!!! How about tossing in some provisions where teachers can discipline the naughty children. That's why I got out of teaching. Loved the teaching, hated the babysitting and parenting, and inability to do anything about the "bad" kids.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Unlike our current educational model where incompetant school boards - often composed of people with no educational background - tell teachers what to do, I believe in listening to the word of professional teachers. So write up a detailed proposal for discipline in our schools, get it on my desk, and I'll see to it that it gets implemented :)

[skepoet.livejournal.com]

I have ideas--but they would piss EVERYONE off. As for the rest of it, I generally agree. I have the idea that immigration quotas should be expended and any non-criminal illegal who wants citizenship should be given a path as ANYONE else who is currently here and going legally (only way to make it fair would be a temporary fast track for all), and deport all others.

I have other things I would do: such as depower parts of the presidency.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Why not just implement your minarchist model I've heard you talk about? I for one would be genuinely curious to see if it worked. And nothing depowers a president like having a king.

[skepoet.livejournal.com]

Ah, minarchist monarchist model. I would have a King, but he would probably have less power in on domestic policy and in military matters than the President.

I would also raise marginal taxes on the rich, but lower capital gains taxes. I would regulate banking, health care, and education--national standards, but less invasive than the current, and I would depower school boards.

I would pass a mandatory service for people age 18-20, but it would be civil service, military service, or necessary infrastructure manual labor service, and that would entitle one to fully paid for higher education if you tested in (regardless of prior background).

I would also do a lot about energy policy--and maybe even nationalize Fanny May and Freddie Mac.

I would put term limits on the Supreme Court.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Wow. Apparently I'm a minarchist monarchist and I never even knew it. I've always been in favor of all that stuff.

[skepoet.livejournal.com]

I think the fact that I wish to separate the head of government from the head of state, the later the US technically isn't suppose to the have. I also don't think the voting makes much difference in lieu of the presidency.

[skepoet.livejournal.com]

However, if we had our little dictatorship: I let you be Mao, and I'd be Enlai (you'd be the public face and I would, you know, make your policy work ;) You have good ideas, but not an eye for certain kinds of details. )

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I recognize my limitations. Although recognize that by your position's very nature I will be able to claim plausible deniability of your actions if need be.

[skepoet.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Vote: uberreiniger!

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be prudent and not have campaign pins that say "I Believe in Uberreiniger." There's going to be enough people wanting to disfigure me as it is.

[rustie25.livejournal.com]

I want to go to your country. This sounds like the place to live! I especially like the idea of getting mental health help to vets. I learned about how the army treated PTSD. Deny deny deny! If you have it, consider yourself unemployed. Getting help must mean you cant do your job anymore.

Personally, I would like to get more mental health support to all of society. Many people in jail should be getting psychiatric help. Maybe if we could work on these problems, and not boot people out of psychiatric care after 3 months because insurance wont cover it...maybe we could get these things fixed. Ya know?

Obviously I like your ideas about teachers :)

I vote for you!

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

The culture of silence in the military regarding PTSD is literally murdering our veterans. I've come across story after story of veterans coming home from Iraq who've either shot themselves, overdosed, or if they were lucky, wound up living in a cardboard box. It doesn't happen to all vets, but it's happening to enough that I say we have failed.

I'm glad my teacher ideas meet with actual teachers' approval :)

[ravenbrenna.livejournal.com]

You most definitely have my vote...even though I am in Canada and would not benefit at all. Yeah, I would become an American Citizen to vote for you! lol.

I have always hated how you see the condition of prisons. Half of them get a better life than we do in the sense of luxuries and etc. Or so I've been led to believe. I'm not going to stand behind that 100% as I've never gone into a prison to verify this for myself.

All very good ideas though. I know the school system in Ontario is suffering (or atleast it was when I was in public school).

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

The prisons here are out of control. They're understaffed, the guards work long hours and are underpaid. Corruption is rampant and many prisons are ruled by gangs. Gang warfare and violence inside the prisons is not uncommon, and many organized crime leaders continue to run their operations from inside the prison. I've even heard tell that street gangs now consider prison a form of training where new members can spend several years learning the criminal trade and emerge more dangerous then when they went in. Indeed, due to lack of educational and rehabilitative programs many criminals emerge more violent and dangerous anyway. We're not a third world country in regard to our prisons by any means, but they're overcrowded, not working, and not helping the problem.

Sorry, didn't mean to go on a rant there.

[ravenbrenna.livejournal.com]

No, that's okay. It's good to know what is going on in the world. It's just a shame the sort of lack of care the world is taking in the way their institutions are run. From prisons, to hospitals, to schools. It's all horrible.

[skepoet.livejournal.com]

Corporeal punishment for minor crimes. Decriminalizing most drug use offenses. Prisoners must support themselves by labor--but that labor may not be sold to private companies (so you don't have the de fact slavery of southern chain gangs come back, because prison would be free labor for corrupt corporations).

Also, I favor no capital punishment for anything other than first degree murder--but two appeals, dna tests on all cases, and beheading, because its actually more humane, just more bloody.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of this, including the beheading. However I also support the measure of coerced rehab for drug use offenses.